The Young Apprentice; or, The Watch-Words of Old London — page 329: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

owe MOSS nal 308 done, Leicester had upset some of its numerous contents. Creeping now towards the door of the room, he opened it a little way, and projecting his head into the corridor beyond it, he listened intently. The murmur of voices came upon his ears. “Humph,” he muttered, “this is a comical wedding, I must say. The bridegroom don't seem to be very impatient. I would give some- thing to hear what this piece of ice, old Sir Henry, is saying. But whata grief and a pity it is that he is sayiug anything at all, for if that rascal Blacklock—who, the Lord be thanked always, as the Puritans say, is now no more— had done his duty, the drugged wine would have stopped the tongue of the old fool ; but there he is, chattering away to that young Rupert, I'll be bound. Well, well; if we can’t do what we would in this world we must do what we can. Let me think now; let me think. Hem, I have it, A bold stroke for a bride this, but I will try it.” Lord Leicester slunk back into the room again, that he had, during the progress of his muttered soliloquy left to the extent of a few paces, and with great care he felt over the table till he got hold of a glass. “‘ Good !"’ he said, Then, touching the different articles as they came in his way, and more than once getting his fingers into some sweetmeats or preserves, from which he had a difficulty in disentangling them, and which induced him to utter divers profane oaths, he at last got hold of a decanter. ‘* T wonder what ia in this decanter,” he said. ‘' It feels full enough. I will take the liberty of taking some of your burgundy, Sir Henry, if you please.’ It was easier to turn the neck of the bottle up” to his mouth than to fill a glass in the dark, so Leicester took a tolerable draught of the wine, __ || By jove |" he said, “ the king has not finer in his cellar. This will do. Aye, this will do. Now, my dearest Alicia, you will be rather a sleepy beauty for atime; but still, you will, I hope, awaken to know you are with one who can appreciate your charms better than the icy old Templar, who is chattering away upon his old stairs with Changeling, while his bride awaits him in her chamber. Ha, ha! that’s good—that’s devilish good !” Leicester poured some of the wine from the decanter into a glass he had got possession of, and then, holding it as steady as he could inthe dark, he made his way again over to the door of the room, “IfI could but get light enough now,” he said, “to put a few drops of the narcotic into the glass of wine, it would be just the thing. I don’t wish to give her an over dose, so I am afraid to attempt it in the dark. Ah, that will do.” Some one was evidently coming down the staircase of the house with a light, for in broad flashes it lit up the hall in which Leicester Was, who, with all the coolness in the world, as though he were in no fear of danger, and by no means trespassing in any one's house, took little phial from his pocket, and from it dropped three drops of rather a thick fluid into the glass of wine. Having both his hands occupied, he had taken THE YOUNG APPRENTICE; OR, out the cork from the phial with his teeth, and he had replaced it in the same way, and then returned it to his et. A glance then in the direction of the stair- case, let him see that the Person descending to the hall was a middle-aged looking female, who was shaking her head and looking fuller of grief than joy. “ Ab,” said Leicester, as he cautiously drew back into the room again, ‘‘that is Margaret, the old advocate’s housekeeper. What is the matter with her, I wonder, now ?” Mistress Margaret crossed the hall, sbaking her head as she did so, and sighing seriously. The wind waved her light to and fro, and made a gigantic shadow of herself dance upon the walls. The house of Sir Henry was one of the largest and most ancient in the Temple. The ceilings were all adorned by bas reliefs, and the walls were painted in the highest style of life at the period, The space that the house occupied was very great indeed, and the grand staircase, as it was called, to distinguish it from another of emaller dimensions, was very elegant, with its elaborately-carved balustrades. Mistress Margaret, the confidential attendant and housekeeper to Sir Henry, stopped at the door of the room, from which there came the murmur of conversation, but it was not to listen to what her master, or the young Rupert, the cousin of the bride, was saying. On the con- trary ; she tapped at once at the door, and then the murmur of voices ceased, ‘¢ Come in,” said a olear, stern voice. Margaret opened the door and entered the room. Before she uttered a word sbe closed it again so that the eager Leicester, who, in de- fiance of being seen, projected his head out of the room in which he was comparatively safe, did not hear a word. “ Confound the old cat,’”’ he muttered, “ why did she not out with her say at once if she has one! Well, there is no time to lose now. Cupid, Venus, and all the mythology that have anything to do with loves and escapades, t me now.” Leicester, light of foot, and eager to reach the upper floor of the house, went up the grand staircase at two steps at a time, and soon came to a long corridor that was dimly lighted by a lamp upon a bracket in one corner of it. The walls of this corridor were hung with pictures of grave and sage-looking old lawyers some in the flowing robes of judicial office, an others in the more scanty and sombre garments of the advocate. One or two warriors, in half-mail, and some sweet faces from the pencil of Lely, came out in strong relief from the quiet, sombre aspect of the portraits. A small table stood close to one of the room doors that opened from the corridor, and upon that table was a vase filled with flowers of varied hues, . Leicester gave a nod with his head, as much as to say, “‘ I am all right, now,”’ and then he tripped boldly to the door of the room, or suite of rooms rather, for such they were. As he approached it, a strange tapping sound came upon his ears, as if some one were tam- == “Ow EDOO CILIA) SS) CO lint’ 4